What’s New With OverDose
Quite a lot, actually. Work continues on with the maps and media assets as well as the code. We have some amazing new features coded in your guys are going to love, everything from HTTP redirects for downloading, to ranking and statistics support on the master server. It’s all happening behind the scenes, it just doesn’t make for a very interesting update post. I’m sure by now you have noticed a few changes, what with the new OverDose site and Forums, but here are a few select goodies from the game for you to look at:
Modelling is slowly ongoing, with Dan now looking into his character modelling. I’m sure you’ll all agree he’s made a great start. As OverDose hopes to have customizable heads, this is going to help go a long way for the game in terms of personalisation.
Just some of the new models we have been working on… Yeah… this shot contains over 100 models, although it doesn’t look it.
A sneak peak of our ingame HUD system. I won’t explain how everything works as yet as I’m saving that for a new post in the new year, so for now just see this as a taster. DOH: Forgot to turn shadows and particle effects on in the pic, sorry!
Catch Up On OverDose – Anywhere
It’s no secret that OverDose is spread over a few sites. But do you know WHERE these sites are, what they are for, and why they exist? Let me fill you guys in:
OverDose Main Site – This is our base site for the game, here you can find links to everywhere else, as well as the latest and most current news.
OverDose Forums – The main hub of our world. I can pretty much guarantee that anything you find posted anywhere else will originate form here first, and nine times out of ten you will find stuff you have never even seen on here. These are our discussion forums which have just been re-launched (And sadly, lost a few billion posts with it).
OverDose SDK/Editing Wiki – Our pool of knowledge. Here, you can find tutorials, information and help on working with the OverDose engine and its files.
OverDose On Twitter – We now tweet! Every new piece of news we post will be sent straight to Twitter, so any subscribers can get the latest info on OverDose any time.
OverDose RSS Feed – We also do RSS. As above, you can get this anywhere in the world easy and instantly.
Hopefully that’s enough info for you all ;)
OverDose – Development
I’m sure by now a lot of you know just what OverDose is, where it’s heading and what we are trying to do. Its no secret that OverDose, in the teams eyes, is Return To Castle Wolfensteins multiplayer style with next gen visuals, coupled with all the knowledge and ideas we feel we can incorporate into the product to provide you all with an end result we feel more a spiritual successor to the original. But the clue is in that phrase; “next gen game”. OverDose isn’t a mod, it’s a game. It’s not a source port… It’s a game.
So just what goes into this game?
Well, I’ll start by telling you the current team, and this is no bulls**t, this is all 100% correct. A lot of people don’t believe us on this, but team wise, let me fill you guys in…
We have one full time coder.
We have one full time artist/modeller.
We have one music guy.
Stop count.
No, seriously, stop. Contributions wise, let me say that Mohawk has been a great help, filling in the high poly modeller role with gusto, but he can only do, say, one model every month or so. Dan has been trying his hand at more complex stuff recently, like the new character shots I’ll be uploading soon, but he has no work in the game at all yet. It’s no secret that Nicolas and I are pretty much doing this by ourselves 99% of the time, and that’s a real bummer. We need more help on this project, because we simply can’t make a full games worth of content by ourselves… But that doesn’t mean we won’t try.
Let me lay down some numbers for you… Given just the three people above, and not including helpers like Mohawk and Dan, take a look at this count:
1,678 Texture Files
776 .CM, .MDL, .LWO, .ASE, .MD5Mesh, .MD5Anim Model Files
297 .WAV Files
227 Code Files
224 Tool Code Files (That Are Public)
53 Programmable Shaders
33 .MTR Material Files
21 SDK BSPs
21 SDK .MAPs
15 Compiled Post Process Files For Maps
7 .OGG Music Files
5 OverDose Tool .EXEs, Not Including ODRadiant
2 Compiled Game .DLLs
1 .ROQ Movie File
1 OverDose .EXE
Making for a total of 3,361 different files all created just for you, which amount to just under 3gigs of data.
Now, like I said, that’s pretty much with only a couple of guys. Notice it doesn’t show maps? Notice the crazy low model count? Yeah… Now you are starting to see our problem. OverDose has been so far riding on doing the impossible. We have a single coder who in my honest opinion is GOD when it comes to this stuff who has managed to take a 12 year old engine and make it look better than a lot of the engines out there. We have the jack of all trades, that would be me, and I’ll toot my own horn here but nearly 2.5gig of stuff by myself…? Yeah, its hard work. We have a soundtrack composed by one guy. ONE. GUY.
Guys, I won’t lie to you, this sucks. This is horrible, and we need to change it. We just need more modellers who are ok working with high poly sculpting, more coders who can help out with our tools like our OWN LEVEL EDITOR which just needs a little more work doing to it (Yeah, our single coder coded our own toolset… Madness). We just need a little more help, so we can actually release this while it still looks visually relevant, otherwise we may have a Half Life 2 Episode 3 case on our hands, where the engine just doesn’t look as hot any more by the time it gets around to being released (Just you watch Valve release some awesome shots now to shut me up).
Please guys, any help, no matter how small, will be hot. We split all donations evenly over the team no matter the work load of a given person. We give credit where credit is due, and if this goes to retail like we are planning, you can rest assured that you won’t be given the shaft when it comes to royalties, hell, it will likely be a great launch platform for you if you want to build into a profession.
Right then, I think I’ve said everything I wanted before I got on with my Christmas shopping. If you don’t hear from me, it’s because I’ve gone into town and been killed by the madness… I hate shopping this time of year… *gulps* *grabs shotgun*
i am a decent programmer (i have made a .3ds model renderer through SDL and OpenGL), but i have no experience with GUI programming or game programming in general :(
Hmm... I would give Nico (berserk "at" teamblurgames "dot" com) a mail anyway, like I said we need certain tools doing?
Sexay HUD :)
I'm surprised people haven't asked why the crosshair is so huge... That would be because its not a crosshair :p But I'll leave HUD stuff for next time, will take a year to write anyway :p
Hmm, I'm thinking faster reloading? It sort of looks like it could be one of those were you have to click again on the differently colored area.
But I'm really not sure, probably serves some bigger purpose or maybe several.
Anyway, I'd love to help you guys out, my mapping skills are pretty basic, but I could do some props and such maybe?
And once the time comes; playtesting and bughunting.
TRB - Timed Reload Boost. Think Gears Of War style active reload. Moving it there makes a lot more sense, compared to sticking it in the corner where nobody looks.
Thing that made me wonder if it really was is that it seems to be a bit close to the starting point if it goes clockwise around.
But it's awesome, as long as ping doesn't have an effect on it, love it.
It will be client side, I imagine. But the "bit close to the starting point" is a bit odd because doesn't that depend on the over all length of the reload anyway? So, if the reload took 20 seconds, thats 8 seconds in. Not saying it will but you know. The length is about the same as gears, its CLICK........ *.5 seconds pass or so* CLICK again. Get it right, weeeeeeee it speeds up and goes around to the end with a fancy sound. Get it wrong, it turns red goes slower for the rest of the reload with a horrid sound as the onscreen animation tried to reload his weapon but stumbles. Do nothing at its just normal speed.
Its a risk factor. Its also totally optional in the UI, so if you don't want it you can turn it off and whack reload as much as you like. But that way, it will always be the average reload speed... So I suggest people learn ;)
Oh yeah, ofcourse. I was just assuming it would be pretty much instant after you clicked reload again in the right area. So that would speed up the reload by more than half.
And yeah panic situations you may need to reload faster than your enemy, and if you fail your're dead meat :)
Looking good -- for an indie game no less! I hope the team finds help to keep the project moving along; I'd love to see this released.
-Only 3 ppl... This is madness!
-Madness? THIS IS OVERDOSE!!!
Keep the good work guys! You are doing the really EPIC work (3K+ of files just by about 3 people and an insane graphic engine)! I'd liked to help you if I had a bit more expeience in any job you do and a much less laziness. Actually I wonder why are you facing such troubles in finding contributors because there are a lot of projects of lesser quality that have a huge community.
Anyway I wish you merry christmas and happy new year with a lot of people willing to help you!